Having found Eye of the Dragon tedious, Blood of the Zombies tiresome and unplayable, and the start of The Port of Peril sloppy and unengaging, I was not particularly enthusiastic when Ian Livingstone was announced as the author of Scholastic's third previously unpublished FF title, Assassins of Allansia. I was still enough of a completist to buy a copy when I encountered it for a reasonable price online, but couldn't be bothered to try playing it before it came up in the challenge I was running at the Fighting Fantazine forum.
By the time the randomiser picked Assassins, insinuations of impropriety had obliged me to cease competing in the challenge, but I was still playing the books as they came up. As it no longer mattered how I fared compared to the participants who were still in the running, and I knew I'd eventually wind up playing the book for this blog, I decided to use my challenge-adjacent attempt at the book to explore options. Inadvisable-looking choices sometimes turn out to be the safest course of action in Sir Ian's books, so I checked out the consequences of risky-looking decisions until they got my character killed (which didn't take long), thereby learning a few things not to do when playing the book here. And also finding traces of the same kind of carelessness that had soured me on Port, which didn't make me any more well-disposed towards Assassins.
When Assassins came up in the following year's challenge I went with a similar, though slightly more cautious approach, avoiding everything I already knew to be harmful with no apparent benefit, skipping a fight in which I didn't fancy my chances (in the hope of learning something more helpful than 'combat against disease-ridden monstrosities can prove lethal when you have a lousy Skill score') and going on to discover some situations in which pushing my luck paid off (plus one that ultimately doomed me thanks to that dismally low Skill). Much of the book remains unknown to me, but I'm not going in completely blind.
My character is another down-on-his-luck adventurer, sufficiently low on funds to have accepted a life-threatening challenge - spending a month on the purportedly lethally inhospitable Snake Island - in the hope of winning just 20 Gold Pieces. Two days in, I've encountered a variety of unpleasant creepy-crawlies, found a degree of shelter in a dilapidated hut, and been only moderately successful in my search for food. Things are about to become a bit more challenging, though, so I'd better determine my stats, allocating dice now I have some indication of the importance of a decent Skill score.
Skill 12
Stamina 15
Luck 9
The rules also claim that I have 10 portions of Provisions and one of the potions that used to be part of the standard starting set-up, which is somewhat at odds with the emphasis on foraging for food in the early stages of the adventure. Okay, ten meals aren't exactly a month's supply of food, but the implication is that I have nothing to eat rather than just not enough to last me the duration.
Anyway, ambiguous alimentation is not a priority right at the start of the adventure. It's night, and I've just woken up in response to the sound of somebody attempting to get into the hut. They seem to be trying to be furtive, which (along with the blatant clue provided by the book's title) suggests to me that my uninvited visitor does not have my best interests at heart, so I quietly get up and lurk in wait.
It's too dark to see anything, but a momentary draught indicates that the door opens, and a floorboard creaks to confirm that the not-as-stealthy-as-intended intruder has entered the building. Somehow, despite being pretty much destitute (and the rules and background say nothing about my having any money at all), I have the option of tossing a coin on the floor, and since the alternative is speaking, thereby giving away exactly where I am, I go with the attempted distraction. It's definitely before breakfast, which is apparently the best time for impossible things.
Paying no attention to the sound of the coin, the new arrival launches what sounds like a pretty vicious attack on my bedding. I swing my sword at where the sounds indicate the blanket-butchering brigand to be, and hear a cry of pain that indicates the sheet-stabber to be a man. A fight ensues, my opponent's low Skill belying the text's assertion that he is 'skilful' and 'agile', and I kill him with ease.
Reluctant to spend what remains of the night with a dead assassin, I exit the hut and bed down on the beach. Nothing tries to eat me, and eventually it gets light enough that I can go back indoors and take a look at my unsuccessful assailant. He looks a bit stereotypical, and has a lot of knives and a silver pendant with a scorpion etched on it. I take the pendant and dagger, and don't bother searching the body more thoroughly because the only other noteworthy item he possesses is what started my first character's terminal decline.
It's time to start searching for food, and I take a Stamina penalty because the fish I caught yesterday didn't provide sufficient nutrition. This suggests to me that going fishing again is not the best way to go about seeking sustenance, and I begin searching the island for something to eat. Before long I discover a bush with red berries on it, which I ignore because red is a sure-fire indicator that fruit is poisonous. Except in tomatoes. And raspberries and strawberries. And cherries, currants and apples... All right, so there are plenty of exceptions, but some red berries are toxic, and my first character confirmed that these are such a variety.
Moving on, I catch sight of a dead tree on which a skeletal hand hangs from a nail. This hand throttled my first character to death when he took an interest in it, so today I leave it alone and keep going. A little later I become aware of a foul smell, which presages an attack by... well, the text calls it a Decayer, but previously in FF that name has been used for a type of plague-bearing skeletal entity, whereas this thing is bigger, blobbier and greener. It's not even the first time that Ian Livingstone has used an established name for a whole new type of monster (with a name that starts with a 'D' and ends in '-er'), though previously he was only contradicting himself.
This is the fight that my second character evaded. Given the author of the book, there is a distinct possibility that killing the Decayer is the only way to acquire some essential item, so as I have a more respectable Skill this time round, I'll risk going into battle and find out exactly how this Decayer differs from the more familiar variety, and whether or not I can get anything (other than some loathsome ailment) from it.
Well, it has a higher Skill and does more damage than Decayers as we know them, so it would have absolutely annihilated Mister Low-Skill, but it appears not to have any infectious or contagious diseases, so while I take quite a beating, I don't think the fight is going to have any long-term adverse consequences (beyond my having lost half my Stamina and probably lacking any means of restoring it).
Close by is the Decayer's lair, which is little more than a ring of stones. One of them has been carved to resemble an eye, so I pick it up in case it has the ability to dispel illusions, remembering that at least a couple of the author's earlier works make possession of an item with such a property the only way to avoid undeath. And it's actually cursed and drains my Luck. Well played, Sir Ian.
Continuing on my way, I reach a clifftop. Carved stone steps lead down to the beach below, where a cave mouth is visible. While I could just head straight down, I also have the option of keeping watch on the cave mouth, which could alert me to the presence of a (doubtless hostile) occupant, but is equally likely to result in my attracting the attention of something nasty up here. I go with the surveillance option anyway, and nothing goes in or out of the cave, but a humanoid brute with no skin above the neck (known as a Flesh-Head) emerges from the nearby vegetation and charges at me. I dodge it with ease, and the stupid beast goes straight over the cliff and falls to its death.
Now I descend to the beach, where I loot a ruby from the corpse. Proceeding to the cave, I see a coil of rope hanging on a peg just inside, a large number of bats hanging from the roof, and what looks like a wooden cupboard further in. On my previous attempt at this book, I suspected that the 'cupboard' was actually a coffin with a vampire in it (in part because of the bats, and also because there are Vampires in at least half a dozen of the author's earlier gamebooks), but as I was in 'take chances in the hope of learning' mode, I investigated anyway, and the cupboard was in fact a cupboard.
Searching the cave provides me with a variety of items. Usually, knowing that gamebook authors have a habit of throwing the odd harmful object into any assortment of pick-ups, I wouldn't have risked grabbing everything, but my previous attempt's 'play to learn, not to win' approach paid off here: nothing has any immediate baleful effect (one might do something lethal later, but leaving behind the wrong thing is just as likely to doom me, so until I know what's what, I'm taking a chance either way), and enough of these items come with Luck bonuses to fully counteract the hit I took from the cursed stone.
Once I have everything, I head back out onto the beach and search that, acquiring a silver coin and a rusty knife. I also catch sight of a barrel floating in the sea but held in place by a chain. Investigating it means another fight, but I'm pretty sure that on this occasion the benefits outweigh the costs, especially for a character who has a decent Skill, so I swim out for a closer look. A Giant Sea Snake attacks me, wounding me once before I kill it. The barrel contains a verdigrised shield, which I add to my inventory before returning to shore and climbing back up the cliff.
I am heading back towards the hut, even though I don't think I've succeeded in finding any food yet (the uncertainty is because of the Worm Paste I picked up in the cave, which might turn out to be edible, however unappetising it sounds), when a Fire Dragon attacks. Previously I fled this encounter, as the Giant Sea Snake had taken me down to my last Stamina point, and there was no real chance of a character with a Skill as low as mine beating a Dragon in combat. Indeed, I couldn't even survive a fight against the inferior opponent I encountered while hiding from the Dragon. This time round I'm willing to risk confronting the Dragon, in case it turns out to be unavoidable on the 'true path'.
It turns out that the Dragon wasn't attacking - it hadn't even seen me, and was just coming in to land in the clearing where I was. But now it has noticed me, and breathes fire in my direction, so it's a good thing I have that shield. Mostly good: in this gamebook the laws of thermodynamics work, so while the shield repels the flames, it also heats up and gives me a burn on the arm.
The Dragon swoops in to land, and I attack. Figuring that my sword is unlikely to get through its scales (which I don't recall having been an issue in FF before now), I take a swing at one of its outstretched claws, and slice the creature's foot in half. This is enough to convince the Dragon to seek easier prey, and it flies off. Aware that Dragon's claws can be turned into fancy weapons, I take the partial appendage I lopped off, hoping to be able to sell it to an armourer.
On the way back to the hut I see that a swarm of bees have just left their nest, which is located in a tree, and try climbing up in the hope of getting some honey. I manage to eat a little, restoring some of the Stamina I've lost, but the sound of the swarm heading back suggests that hanging around for a second helping might cause me to lose more than I've gained, so I climb down before the bees get back.
Moored on the beach near the hut is the boat that brought me here. Its Captain doesn't look too happy, and with his eyes he gestures towards a figure lurking in the shadow of a rock and readying a bow and arrow. The archer fires, and the text asks if I have a shield. There was no indication that I lost or discarded the shield after the dragon heated it up, so I'm going with yes. Thus, I deflect the shots fired, and my attacker, a Dark Elf Priestess, draws a sword and attacks. While a more formidable opponent than the knife-wielding rogue I fought last night, she's still not much of a threat, and I only take one wound before killing her.
With her dying words she indicates that she belongs to a guild, and is confident that another member of it will kill me. She wears a scorpion pendant identical to the one I took from the man with the knives (not the same one, even though that's what the text says before a later reference to 'the pendants' clarifies that there are multiple pendants of the same type rather than one pendant magically relocated to a new wearer - and I infer from what others have said about the book that collecting a full set of these pendants is essential for success, so that ambiguity is mighty sloppy).
The Captain is chained to the mast of his boat, so I free him and ask what's afoot. He reveals that Lord Azzur, ruler of Port Blacksand, has put a price on my head, holding me responsible for the death of Zanbar Bone, and he's set a whole guild of assassins on my trail. Having carelessly mentioned that he'd brought me to Snake Island, the Captain was arrested, tortured, and forced to bring the Dark Elf here. Initially the assassins came out singly, drawing lots to see who got the first stab at killing me, and then who'd be second to take a shot at it, but they're likely to be dispatched en masse before long. During the sea crossing the Dark Elf mentioned one other guild member, Garanka Vassell, who has gold teeth and a dent in his skull, and favours decapitating his targets, but no information on the other would-be assassins is available.
While it's possible that something I have yet to reach in The Port of Peril clarifies the set-up, right now the revelation that Azzur serves/served Zanbar Bone seems like a big retcon. Back in City of Thieves the only connection between Blacksand and Bone was that the man who knew how to kill Zanbar lived in the city, and the biographical information on Azzur in Titan had him as an acolyte of the Khulian god of storms. I suppose it's possible that Ian Livingstone always had such a connection in mind, and just never mentioned it, but since a lot of discussion of Assassins has focused on how its ending ties in with but contradicts another of his books, I think it equally plausible that this is just another continuity reference thrown in with no thought given to fitting in with established lore.
The Captain concludes his info-dump by saying that we should leave the island at once, before the next assassin arrives, and that a storm is brewing, so we ought not to set sail right now. Resisting the temptation to ask if he used to be a member of The Clash, I decide not to risk getting shipwrecked. The Captain provides some food from his stores, and an uneventful night follows. In the morning he mentions that the boat's tiller is damaged (and he was contemplating setting off without fixing it yesterday?), and wanders off in search of a suitable piece of wood. I somewhat belatedly help myself to the Dark Elf's weapons, and when the Captain is slow to return, I set off to find out what the delay is.
It turns out that he's fallen foul of a Hell's Bloodwort, a carnivorous plant which immobilises its victims with vines. He's probably doomed whatever I do, but I'm more likely to be penalised for abandoning him than killed for trying to save him, so I attack the plant. No combat ensues - I just hack at vegetation until the Captain is free. He dies, so I bury him, evading an attack from the Bloodwort as I do. Then I lose some Stamina for stepping on an ants' nest, find a suitable piece of wood, make the necessary repairs to the boat (incidentally, I've not got to make a decision or had to turn to a new section since choosing to attempt to rescue the Captain) and set sail.
After a while the boat attracts the attention of a pirate ship. Playing dead seems like an idiotic idea when my face is on wanted posters all over the closest pirates' haven, so I discreetly slip overboard and try to remain unobserved. The pirates decide to tow the boat to Port Blacksand and sell it, and I try to climb back on board without attracting any attention. My Luck holds out, and I opt not to risk attracting attention by cutting the tow rope, so the book forces the issue by having the pirates encounter something nasty and take manoeuvres that unsettle the boat until I have to untether it before it gets capsized.
That 'something nasty' is a Kraken, which pulls the pirate ship into the depths. Before the leviathan can take an interest in me, I set sail, choosing not to head for Port Blacksand because of the whole 'wanted poster/hefty reward/population of low-lifes who'd cheerily knife me in the back even if there weren't a massive financial incentive for doing so' thing.
I make it to the Red River estuary without incident, and head for a nearby boatyard to try and sell the boat. I find one man there, varnishing a boat. Upon catching sight of me, he summons a couple of dogs, seemingly for protection rather than to attack. The book gives me the option of making enquiries about Vassell, but I'm not sure that name-dropping an assassin would be a particularly smart thing to do, so I just ask the man if he'd like to buy a used boat. He seems to find my face vaguely familiar (probably from one of Azzur's posters), and definitely recognises the vessel when inspecting it. When he asks how it came into my possession. I tell him of the Captain's fate, and he concedes that my account may be true, but only offers 20 Gold Pieces in case I'm lying. I can accept the offer or try haggling, and I'm not sure which option is more likely to raise his suspicions. Asking for more causes him to claim that he had been offering a fair price (though a moment ago he'd said he wasn't going to give me much), and he now refuses to give me more than 15 Gold. It's that or nothing, so I take it.
There's a shop close by, so I head for that, but find that it's displaying one of those wanted posters. Well, unless I want to decide that the rules were right about those don't-fit-the-narrative Provisions, I need some food, so I risk going in anyway. The proprietor recognises me, but seems amused rather than fearful or avaricious, so I don't bother claiming to be someone else or fleeing. That leaves me with a choice: while I could buy Provisions as intended, I also have the option of asking if he has any Elven Boots for sale, and unprompted seeking of an oddly specific item has been an essential course of action in at least one of Ian Livingstone's books before now.
I ask about the boots, and have to Test my Luck, rolling badly, so there are none in stock. That may have doomed me, but I'll buy Provisions anyway. Choosing to do so causes me to tell the storekeeper my tale, and he seems sympathetic, offering to sell me some food and a Bag of Everything that will make whatever possessions I might be lugging around seem weightless. Seems like a good deal, so I pay up, and get one meal's worth of food and the bag, which reduces my encumbrance enough to provide a redundant Skill bonus.
Again I have the option of asking about Vassell, and since the shopkeeper already knows and seems not to care about the price on my head, there's no obvious risk in doing so here. Indeed, it turns out to be a good thing to do, as it was Vassell who put up the poster, and the friendly reception I got was in part a reaction to his obnoxious behaviour while here. Introducing himself as Harold Cornpepper (going by the surname, probably a relative of the Ian Livingstone look-alike shopkeeper from Eye of the Dragon), the store owner tells me details of the trap Vassell wanted him to help set up for me, and encourages me to buy some of the magical items that are for sale here.
I check out the merchandise, which includes four items of potential interest. Well, three, as I'm at full Skill already, so the bracelet that gives a hefty bonus to that won't benefit me, but as Harold offers a 'four for the price of three' deal, and I remember that in one of the author's previous books an item that (potentially unhelpfully) added to Skill had additional benefits, I get the lot anyway.
My business concluded, I head east, aware that somewhere within half an hour's walk of here, Vassell is lurking in wait, anticipating a signal from Harold. Before long I catch sight of a small man, dressed mostly in green, dozing beside a tree. Stopping to speak with him, I discover that he's actually a disguised Goblin, and an accomplice of his up in the tree drops a weighted net on me. Well, before now being ambushed by a Goblin in an Ian Livingstone book has led to the acquisition of something helpful or essential, and there's no way I can fail the Skill roll to extricate myself from the trap, so I don't feel too bad about having been fooled.
Escaping with ease, I have no trouble defeating the Goblins in battle. Their belongings consist of a little gold, half a dozen opals, and a torn notice relating to Baron Sukumvit's Trial of Champions - or possibly an alternative universe's variant thereof, given that this one starts at the end of the month rather than on the first, and the wording of what I can read implies that somebody is expected to win the challenge rather than stressing the unlikelihood of any contestant's surviving, which has always been a prominent aspect of the marketing before now.
Continuing on my way, I see a hooded woman who's sharpening a stick. A little oddly, she carries a quiver of arrows but no bow. She greets me, and I respond in kind. If she's one of the assassins, she's not likely to just let me walk past, so I might as well confront her face to face rather than offer an opportunity to stake me in the back. She claims to be a fletcher, taking some of her wares to sell, and asks if I want to buy any arrows. As I do have a bow, I decide to get some more ammo. The feathers in the arrows' tails are all black, which the woman explains away by saying they come from chickens, to ensure that their flight is true. Well, some chickens do have black plumage, but by no means all, so that's not the most reassuring of explanations. Especially as chickens aren't renowned for flying well.
I ask the woman if she's heard anything about assassins, and the question seems to trouble her. She claims not to have any relevant information, and I catch sight of a silver necklace around her throat. My hand goes to the hilt of my sword, and she insists that she's not an assassin, claiming to be unarmed apart from her knife and arrows. Still suspicious, but not wanting to attack an innocent, I check that she's not hiding anything in her cloak. No weapons, but when she offers to shake hands I suspect sorcerous skulduggery, and go for my sword after all.
Good call. Accepting that she hasn't fooled me, the woman reveals that she's actually an assassin, and implies that she was responsible for the recent fatal 'accident' experienced by the fletcher whose wares she is carrying. Drawing two concealed swords, she attacks me, and I make short work of her with my not-so-hidden sword.
Ambiguity regarding the number of arrows she was carrying prompts me to check what would have happened if I hadn't bought any, and it turns out that the acquisition of treasure from this assassin has been rather messily handled. All the relevant paragraph needed do was say something like, 'If you bought arrows from her, you retrieve the money you paid for them. If you didn't, you may take the six arrows she was carrying.' Instead, she's carrying the same amount of gold regardless of whether or not I paid her, and I can loot arrows from her even if I already bought them.
Resuming my journey, I catch sight of a building, indicated by a sign to be Tall Tom's Tavern. This is where Vassell instructed Harold to tell me he'd be staying when outlining his trap, and after spying on the place for a short time I catch sight of a crossbow-toting man with gold teeth and a dented skull at one of the windows. Well, unless that's an illusion, Vassell is rather less competent an assassin than I'd expected him to be. I was expecting him to be lurking somewhere on the way to the tavern, planning to take me by surprise, but no, he's where he instructed Cornpepper to tell me he was going to be.
One of the things that earned him Harold's enmity was taking stuff from the shop without paying for it. I decide to let him have a free sample of the late fletcher's wares - ideally right between the eyes. My shot isn't quite as lethal as I'd hoped it might be, but Vassell gets it in the neck, and comes charging out of the tavern, sword held high. In the ensuing combat the dice do not favour me, and in spite of my Skill advantage I only survive by using Luck to reduce the effectiveness of the last hit that Vassell scores on me.
In addition to taking the inevitable pendant and what little cash Vassell has on him, I also help myself to the assassin's chain mail. It provides another unusable Skill bonus, but might also protect me from a surprise attack by a less dopey assassin. In the hope that food and/or rest might restore some of the Stamina I lost in the fight, I then enter the tavern.
The lone customer inside averts his gaze from me, and the proprietor complains that I killed Vassell before he paid for his room, but offers to give me some advice if I settle the bill. It's for less than I took from the dead man, so I can afford it, and the alternative is just to leave, so I might as well see if there's any benefit to be gained from coming in here. Paying up, I learn a little more about the late Vassell's odious personal habits, and am advised to consult the man seated at a nearby table, who is apparently a seer. It's that or a blind choice of direction, so I opt to find out if the seer can advise me on where to go.
Sidd the Seer tells me he can only answer one question because he only had one egg for breakfast. Whatever. I have the choice of asking where Lord Azzur is, or seeking information about the next assassin on my trail. The former question seems unlikely to help me, as what I've inadvertently learned about the ending of the adventure rules out killing Azzur or convincing him to call off the remaining assassins, so I might as well find out what I can about whoever is going to try and kill me next. Sidd's crystal ball shows me a warrior woman with a spear, and he tells me her name, but none of what he reveals seems likely to improve my odds of survival. And now I have to leave, still on the verge of death, because buying food or drink in a tavern just isn't an option, and with no idea which direction won't doom me.
After eating the food I bought from Cornpepper in the hope of postponing my increasingly inevitable-looking demise, I continue in the direction I had been heading, and after a little while I see a table laden with apples, and a sign indicating that they're free to anyone who wants them. What with having a bunch of unprincipled assassins on my tail, I'd be wary of the giveaway even if the author hadn't featured poisoned apples in one (maybe two) of his earlier works. Hoping this isn't some preposterous 'if you don't eat a poisoned apple, the assassin who set them up won't confront you here, so you won't encounter them until they get to Instant Death you in the endgame' set-up, I pass by.
A short distance away is a hut with a sign warning of poisoned apples and indicating that healing potions are sold here. Perhaps the apples weren't the handiwork of one of the assassins, but an enterprising yet unscrupulous tradesperson. Annoyingly, going into the hut is only an option for players who ate an apple. If the sign had been advertising poison antidote, I'd be all right with that limitation, but a healing potion would come in quite handy right now, and I resent being denied the opportunity to get one just for having avoided taking an obvious risk.
Continuing on my way, I reach a point where a tributary joins the river, and see a couple of fishermen arguing about splitting their catch. When they notice me, they at least temporarily forget their squabble, and reach for their swords. I offer to buy the fish, and in addition to getting an insubstantial meal, I wind up with the bucket in which they were being transported. The two men stroll off, now arguing about the money I paid.
A compulsory change of direction follows, sending me in the direction I didn't go after leaving the tavern. Between that and the low stakes of the encounters since I left Tall Tom's, I suspect that I went the wrong way and have missed something vital. Pretty much unavoidable during the first several attempts at one of Ian Livingstone's books, but tiresome all the same.
The trail leads through a wooded area, and the possibility that an assassin might be lurking in ambush puts me on edge. After a while I reach a fork in the path, giving me a choice between proceeding towards a town or a forest. The town has probably been visited by one of Azzur's bill-posters, so going there incurs the risk of encountering numerous reward-seeking opportunists who, while not numbered among the eponymous assassins, will be equally eager to end my life. Besides, it's only a few sentences since the text highlighted the likelihood of an assassin's using the trees for cover, and if that's not a hint... then it's a nasty bit of misdirection. I might as well try to find out which.
There's a stretch of grassland between here and the forest, and while traversing it I catch sight of what looks like a trap - someone lying in the long grass and groaning as if in pain. Well, if it is an assassin, he's not going to fight himself to the death, so I'd better take a closer look. And it turns out that he's a dying woodsman, knifed by a Hobgoblin who failed to find the hidden pocket in which he keeps his gold. He invites me to take the money before he expires, and I do so.
Continuing on my way, I see a side turning to the east, along which the assassin of whom Sidd notified me is charging to the attack. Maybe I haven't missed anything important after all. She hurls a spear, but I still have that shield, and deflect it. Unruffled, she draws two long knives. I have the option of throwing the spear back at her, but choose to rely on my own sword. A sudden leap enables her to get in the first blow unopposed, but once I'm able to fight back, I have no trouble defeating her.
She's wearing a golden armband in the shape of a snake, which the text compels me to take along with the scorpion pendant and what money she has. I do at least get to choose whether to wear the armband or just sling it into my pack. In the hope that it might have healing properties, I risk slipping it onto my arm. I feel a burning sensation, but there's no immediate Stamina loss, so I tough it out. Once my system has assimilated the band's power, I get a boost to all three stats, and while that's another wasted Skill bonus, the added Stamina and Luck are both welcome.
Confronted with another choice of direction, I opt to continue towards the forest. A pack of wolves intercepts me, and I kill its leader with ease, putting the others to flight. No further interruptions occur until I reach the edge of the forest, at which point a little man standing on a branch hails me. He advises me not to enter the Forest of Fiends, so either he's trying to trick me or there is something seriously wrong with the author's grasp of Allansian geography. I'm nowhere near far enough east to be close to the Forest of Fiends (besides which, I'd have had to pass Stonebridge and Firetop Mountain to reach the right region, and can you seriously see Ian Livingstone passing up a chance to namedrop either of those locations?)
The man offers to give me some advice in return for food, and the book asks if I want to hand over some Provisions, not acknowledging the possibility that I might have none. Even if I take it that the rules were right about my starting with 10 meals' worth (and thus that the whole business about needing to search for food on Snake Island was misleading), it's far from certain that a player wouldn't have already eaten them all by this stage. Owing to the uncertainty, I've only eaten the portion I bought from Cornpepper (and consequently I've been stumbling around with a single-digit Stamina ever since fighting the Decayer), but a character with a middling Skill could easily have felt the need to consume almost a dozen meals' worth of healing in order to survive this long.
Checking the section covering accepting the man's offer, I see that it requires me to hand over two portions of Provisions, so unless I've missed numerous opportunities to buy food along the way, I must have had some at the start after all for it even to be possible to pay for his advice. All right, then, I will go with the premise that the rules were right after all, and the urgency of the foraging at the start was exaggerated. A single sentence early on, indicating the advisability of living off the land where possible so as to eke out the food I had for the duration of the challenge, would have cleared up the confusion - though there would still be the failure to acknowledge that the Provisions provided might not have lasted this long.
Anyway, since I peeked at the section and have the necessary resources, I'll listen to the man's advice. He tells me that he's a Woodling, and lives in the trees because the forest contain so many dangerous creatures at ground level. After repeating his warning to stay out of the forest, he recommends that I head for the nearby town of Kaad, as a trapper mentioned that Lord Azzur is visiting there. That strikes me as being akin to jumping out of the frying pan and into the blast furnace, but I suspect that defying Sir Ian's 'logic' will result in a rapid demise, so east to Kaad I go.
Heading east around the forest, I catch sight of Kaad and a large spider drops onto me. As Luck would have it, the arachnid is not venomous, and I fling it away without sustaining any harm. I proceed towards Kaad, and a horse-drawn carriage with a snobbish-looking female passenger emerges from the gates. Probably not one of the assassins, but it may be advisable to try and speak with her or her driver anyway.
The woman recognises me from the posters, but indicates that she neither likes nor believes Azzur. She lets me know that he is no longer in Kaad, but has set off to Fang for the annual 'watch a bunch of doomed fighters enter Deathtrap Dungeon one at a time, and never find out what unpleasant fate befalls them' celebrations. She then offers me a lift part of the way towards Fang, and as the book seems to be operating on the premise that meeting with Azzur is the best way to resolve the situation (I guess it might be if I could eliminate the price on my head by killing him, but the author's clearly way too besotted with the character to ever let him die), and going into Kaad always looked like a stupid idea, I accept.
After an uneventful journey, I am dropped off outside a hostelry, where I can get a room for the night, unless I'd rather sleep outside and risk getting mauled by nocturnal predators. It's possible that such predators would include one of the remaining assassins, but Vassell has already shown that assassins are not averse to staying in establishments like this one, so I'm just as likely to encounter the next of Azzur's hired killers in here.
No, it's a quiet night, and breakfast restores a little Stamina before I continue on my way, following the proprietor's directions towards Fang. Before long I reach a jetty on the southern bank of the River Kok. Close by is a hut, and a man dozes in a boat. I was advised to take the ferry, but I might as well check for lurking assassins before I do anything else. A quick peek inside the hut reveals it to contain a dead man with a dagger in his back. Between getting stabbed and expiring he had time to write a short message in his blood, implicating someone named Zeedle in his murder.
On the pier there's a bell to ring for the ferryman, so I use that to wake the man in the boat, who introduces himself as Zeedle the Ferryman, and advises me to make use of his services, as the river is populated by carnivorous Snapperfish. I don't pay the Ferryman - well, not unless a punch in the face counts. While he's stunned from the blow, I check and find his scorpion pendant, which I add to my collection before throwing its owner into the river. He wasn't lying about those Snapperfish.
I row myself across the river and continue towards Fang. A muscular man with a face-concealing helmet and a scorpion pendant accosts me, claiming to be the ultimate assassin, and I need to survive five rounds of combat against him. With decent rolls and judicious use of Luck I could kill him in less time than that, but the book doesn't acknowledge that possibility, and after the fifth round concludes, my opponent scores a blow on me by authorial fiat. It's the last wound he gets to inflict, though, as a Barbarian with an eyepatch fells him with a couple of thrown axes.
My rescuer introduces himself as Throm, and explains that he was avenging his brother's death. I tell him why the assassin was trying to kill me, and Throm says that he's planning on entering the Trial of Champions tomorrow, and recommends that I do likewise, as that will give me an opportunity to meet Azzur. This is one of the most idiotic plans ever put forward in all FF, what with Deathtrap Dungeon being a lot more lethal than the assassins, not to mention the fact that there can only be one winner, so even if entering the challenge does get Azzur off my back, it will guarantee that unless Throm or I fall foul of one of the dungeon's deathtraps first, we will eventually have to fight each other to the death. And my character thinks it's a great idea, and grabs the deceased assassin's helmet so nobody will be able to recognise my face from the wanted posters.
Proceeding into Fang, I register for the Trial, undaunted by the warning that my chances of surviving are lower than the odds of making a profit by trading in stocks and shares via a broker who advertises online, and spend the rest of the day resting and recuperating and failing to recover any Stamina because it's not that kind of recuperation.
The following morning I join the other contestants outside Deathtrap Dungeon. There are six of us, and given that they include Throm, it would appear that this is supposed to be the start of the sequence of events that plays out in the gamebook that introduced the Trial. Okay, so the viewpoint character there was taking part for the challenge rather than as part of an ill-advised scheme to avoid a bunch of inept assassins, reached Fang by taking a raft from the Kok estuary, spent several days there before the Trial commenced, and had never met Throm before, but details, details.
Anyway, Baron Sukumvit and Lord Azzur are on a podium, along with a bunch of guards (just like at the start of Deathtrap Dungeon, except for the presence of the podium and Lord Azzur and maybe the guards). I have the option of attacking Azzur, which would almost certainly lead to my getting filleted by all those guards. Based on another complaint fans have raised concerning this book (the unavoidable loss of an item that's required for surviving an essential encounter later on), I'm pretty sure I've missed at least one assassin and am thus doomed anyway, so I could take the opportunity to find out exactly how ignominiously I'd die if I were to try and kill Sir Ian's pet villain, but deliberately failing in that manner does not appeal.
The no-hopers entering the Trial are introduced to the Baron one at a time. When it's my turn, Sukumvit says I should remove the helmet out of respect for his guest. The text gives me the option of refusing for fear of being recognised, but since it's the book that's forced me into this confrontation, not letting Azzur know who I am now that I've finally made it into his presence seems rather perverse.
Once Azzur realises who I am, he asks how many of his assassins I've killed. The question is rapidly amended to how many scorpion pendants I have, which isn't necessarily the same thing - while I've avoided all the situations in which I could lose equipment, I am aware that there are some in the book. Unless each instance of being robbed (or whatever occurs to deprive me of my belongings) specifies that I retain all scorpion pendants regardless, I could potentially kill every assassin but still end up dying at the hands of one of them because I lost concrete proof of having ended their existence. Knifed by Schroedinger's cut-throat.
To draw things out, I am first asked if the number of pendants I have is odd or even. It's odd, which takes me on to the next stage of this silly game, where I learn that I must have missed multiple assassins. Even if the highest total I have the option of giving is above the actual number obtainable (an anti-cheating mechanism Sir Ian has employed before), I'm still at the low end of the range listed.
Yep, at least one assassin survived, and decapitates me while I'm playing 'count the pendants' with Azzur. His Lordship then effectively sentences the triumphant assassin to death by entering them into the Trial of Champions, indicating that if they should somehow win, he will lay claim to the prize money, but allow them to retain 10% of it in addition to the bounty for me. Rather than promptly gutting the tightwad for enforcing such an unfavourable deal, the cretin agrees and joins the queue outside the dungeon entrance.
Considering the number of assassins I must have missed, I think it unlikely that my choice of direction after leaving Tall Tom's Tavern was all that caused me to miss out on essential encounters, so I guess the successful route through the book requires players to take some or all of the more blatantly unwise risks I avoided (the pirate ship, Port Blacksand, Kaad). As I observed near the start of this post, with Ian Livingstone books the trick is to identify which inadvisable-seeming choices to take and which to avoid. I now have a few more data points to help with figuring that out, but probably not yet enough.
While a distinct improvement upon the FF books Ian Livingstone wrote for Wizard, Assassins of Allansia is still flawed, and I'm not particularly enthusiastic at the prospect of playing it again at some point in the future. Quite a contrast to how diligently I replayed Return to Firetop Mountain until finally beating it, but that's probably more a reflection of how I've changed over the course of the past quarter-century than an indication of the relative merits of the two books.
